Egypt: Three Muslim Brotherhood members arrested for forming ”jihad” group

Published December 17th, 2008 - 15:44 GMT

Egyptian authorities on Wednesday remanded in custody for 15 days a senior Muslim Brotherhood member and two other men on suspicion of "forming a jiha

Egyptian authorities on Wednesday remanded in custody for 15 days a senior Muslim Brotherhood member and two other men on suspicion of "forming a jihad group" in Egypt tied to Hamas. The alleged leader of the group is Gamal Abdel Salam, a Brotherhood activist who heads the emergency relief committee at the Cairo-based Union of Arab Doctors and who was arrested in Cairo on Tuesday morning, judicial sources told Reuters.

Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a Brotherhood leader and Abdel Salam's superior at the Union of Arab Doctors, dismissed the accusation as imaginary and ridiculous. "The Brotherhood in Egypt is engaged in nothing but peaceful activity. The Brotherhood, both within Egypt and abroad, has no armed activities. So these are all false allegations by the authorities," he conveyed.

The two men detained with Abdel Salam are Mohamed Adel, a blogger sympathetic towards Hamas, and Abdel Aziz Mugahed, an Islamist student leader in the south Cairo suburb of Helwan, the sources said. Some 40 policemen took Adel from his home on Nov. 20, along with books and CDs.

Aboul Fotouh expected Abdel Salam to be released. "It's a form of pressure, a way of scaring the Egyptian public from sympathising with the Palestinian cause," he added.